We are without a doubt at the pinnacle of factory performance. With the debut of the 800-plus hp Dodge Demon, the Hellcat with its 707 hp and the Scat Pack with “just” 485 hp are players in the back-up band—but what a hell of a back-up band it is. Kind of like saying Eddie and Alex Van Halen are David Lee Roth’s roadies. Putting things into perspective, the “lowly” Scat Pack 392 can click off solid 12s just as easily as going to the grocery store for ice cream. Not even the vaunted ’66-71 Street Hemi could do that in bone-stock trim back in the day. Hellcats are even quicker, cranking out 11s with stock tires at altitude and high 10s with slicks. Put the street tires back on and hit the highway with 22 mpg. Three years after the first Hellcat, we now see them regularly in the 9s with nothing but simple bolt-ons, but even that pales in comparison to the new Demon.

Dodge for their part say go right ahead and race them—we’ll cover you on the factory warranty. Who are we to argue with them? The Dodge faithful have opted into the revolution, gobbling up Scat Packs and Hellcats by the thousands. Moreover, they have actively sought out opportunities to race against the cross-town rivals at Chevy and Ford. With Chevy cranking up the heat with the Camaro ZL1 and Ford following up the rear with the Shelby GT350, it’s not uncommon to see battles break out on the street and at the track. The Dodges—especially the Hellcat—have no problem breaking hearts and taking money, so to keep things interesting, we wanted to see which guys and gals have the fastest Hellcats and Scat Packs in the land.

To do that, Mopar Muscle teamed up with Phil Painter, who puts on a shindig in Las Vegas called MATS—which most people word-associate with “Mopars At The Strip.” We created two classes: The Scat Pack Challenge and the Hellcat Shootout. Both classes run heads-up, and require the cars to be registered, licensed, insured, and driven on the street. Beyond that, any mods are allowed.

This year at Las Vegas on April 22, 2017, we continued our quest for the fastest Hellcats and Scat Packs, and once again saw strong performances. Early on, we spotted Scott Herring, Walter Escobar, and Donald Halm as top contenders in the Hellcat camp. With some serious mid-10-second timeslips, any one of them could’ve emerged victorious. And since you’re wrongly thinking it, don’t assume that 10s are slow for Las Vegas, because the altitude density, temperature, headwind, and ambient dust level is typically very high, slowing cars significantly. At the end of the day, Walter Escobar proved his mettle with a final-round performance of 10.74/132.2 to Mark Aletto’s slowing 13.38/113.6.

In the Scat Pack Challenge, Jesse Rose was the stand out all day as his Magnacharger-blown 2016 Challenger was deep in the 11s. With a trap speed of over 130 mph, Rose was clearly suffering from a loss of traction that otherwise would’ve put him in league with the Hellcats. While not as fast as Tim Hayes’s Kenne-Bell blown Scat Pack Challenger that we saw in St. Louis (10.50/131), keep in mind the far less favorable track and atmospheric conditions in Las Vegas. We think these two cars would make an awesome Scat Pack pairing if we could ever get the two together. Which brings up another point: we’ve not yet seen the East Coast guys or the West Coast guys make the journey to the opposite coast for either Hellcat or Scat Pack competition. It would be nice to see that change—especially for the West Coast guys who have a harder time hooking in the high desert. Next stop for the Hellcat Shootout and Scat Pack Challenge: the St. Louis Monster Musclecar Weekend!

Man, I need to attend one of these someday! Must be awesome to see so many HEMIs.